At ordinary health care sites, as methods that diagnose pathological tissues such as tumors (for example, diagnose whether a pathological tissue is a malignant tumor such as a cancer), a prepared specimen is made in such a manner that part of a pathological tissue is harvested from the patient, the harvested pathological tissue is sliced, the sliced tissue (hereinafter referred to as a biopsy) is placed on a slide glass, and then the biopsy is stained. The prepared specimen is observed and diagnosed under a microscope or the like.
The following relationships of staining methods (such as reagents), staining targets, and staining colors are known.
Staining MethodStaining TargetColorHematoxylincell nucleusbluish purpleEosincell nucleus,light redconnective tissuePAS stainingmucuspurpleKB stainingnerve fiberblueKeratin 903basal cellbrownBesides above staining methods, Hematoxylin & Eosin (H&E), Immunohistochemistry (IHC), Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH), and so forth are known.
H&E can be used to stain basophilic cell nucleus, bony tissue, part of cartilaginous tissue, serum component, and so forth in bluish purple; and acidophilic cytoplasm, connective tissue of soft tissue, erythrocyte, fibrin, endocrine granule, and so forth in red pink.
IHC can be used to visualize an antigen-antibody reaction. FISH can be used to map a gene and detect chromosome aberrations.
Thus, since these staining methods deal with different staining targets, when different staining methods are applied to the same part of the tissue and the resultant part is observed, diagnosis can be more accurately perform than one staining method is applied.
However, if a sliced tissue on one prepared specimen is stained by a plurality of different staining methods, since stained colors are not properly developed, the diagnosis is likely to become difficult. In addition, some staining methods may not be used together. Thus, it is preferred to prevent a plurality of staining colors from co-existing on one prepared specimen.
FIG. 1 shows an example prepared specimen that has been made. A prepared specimen P1 shown in FIG. 1A and a prepared specimen P2 shown in FIG. 1B are composed of biopsies adjacently cut from a harvested pathological tissue. For example, it is assumed that one of the prepared specimens P1 and P2 is stained by H&E, the other is stained by IHC.
A biopsy b11 at the left end on the prepared specimen P1 shown in FIG. 1A and a biopsy b12 at the left end on the prepared specimen P2 shown in FIG. 1B are adjacently cut from the pathological tissue that is punctured and harvested. Hereinafter, the relationship between the biopsy b11 and the biopsy b21 is referred to as corresponding biopsies. Likewise, the relationship between a biopsy b21 at the center of FIG. 1A and a biopsy b22 at the center of FIG. 1B and the relationship between a biopsy b31 at the right end of FIG. 1A and a biopsy b32 at the right end of FIG. 1B are also respectively referred to as corresponding biopsies.
Rectangle frames on the prepared specimens P1 and P2 represent regions on the same coordinates on the prepared specimens P1 and P2. When the prepared specimens P1 and P2 are compared, it is obvious that corresponding biopsies on the two prepared specimens P1 and P2 are not always located on the same coordinates. In addition, when a biopsy is cut, the shape of the biopsy may be deformed depending on the cutting force and so forth applied to the biopsy.
As the simplest method that compares the two prepared specimens P1 and P2, quickly moving the observing positions of the two prepared specimens P1 and P2 simultaneously placed under a microscope, a diagnostician such as a pathologist looks for corresponding portions and performs diagnosis. In this case, however, if the diagnostician moves the prepared specimens excessively or insufficiently, it is difficult for him or her to accurately and efficiently observe the corresponding portions.
Thus, as a method that does not cause the diagnostician to move the prepared specimens, a virtual microscope system has been proposed (for example, see Patent Literature 1 below).
The virtual microscope system divides a diagnosing biopsy on a prepared specimen into small regions, photographs the divided small regions through an objective lens having a high resolution, and combines the plurality of small regions so as to reconstruct the image of the diagnosing biopsy as digital image data.
When two prepared specimens are reconstructed as digital image data by the virtual microscope system, the two prepared specimens can be simultaneously displayed on a screen or the like of a personal computer.